“Never,” I said, lifting my chin. “Especially coming from a vampire who basically attacked me in his basement.”
He let out a heavy sigh that shook his entire body. “Listen. I’ll admit that I shouldn’t have grabbed your wrists like that, but I was only trying to save your skin.”
“Why? So that you could eat it?”
Still frowning, he stepped inside the apartment and shut the door behind him. I backed up a few steps, keeping Laura behind me. Now that we were in the dark, and I knew a little bit more of what I was capable of, I was ready to take him in a fight. He didn’t know I was a Shadow, after all, and the element of surprise could be exactly what I needed to get an edge over him.
“I’m not going to eat your fucking skin, Zoe. I’m an Unbound vampire, not a cannibal.” He pulled a blood bag from his coat and tossed it onto the floor. The red sloshed in the plastic, immediately making my stomach turn. “I don’t attack people for blood either. Take a look for yourself.”
“You’re a vampire?” Laura’s eyes went wide, and she moved out from behind me to stalk toward him. My heart lurched, and I tried to pull her back, but she just shook me off. “How dare you not tell us that. After the way I got attacked?”
“Laura. Stay back,” I warned. “This could be some kind of trick.”
With a glare in Dorian’s direction, she knelt down and grabbed the bag. “This is disgusting, but I think he might be telling the truth. The label says it’s bovine.”
“Bovine?” I wrinkled my nose. “So, you’re saying you drink cow’s blood? I thought vampires had to drink human blood in order to keep their powers?”
“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not a Daywalker?” he snapped. “I’m an Unbound. I’ve been cursed. I have to drink blood to stay alive, but luckily, the warlock who cursed me didn’t specify what kind.”
“Fine.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Maybe you’re telling the truth. That doesn’t change the fact you lied to me about what you are.”
“Sometimes, we have to lie to people in order to protect them and ourselves.” Dorian strode closer, his eyes deep and suggestive. Unease flickered through me, and I had to stop myself from pressing a hand to my mark. There was no way he could have figured it out, but had he? Somehow? He was an Unbound vampire, something I didn’t know much about. His powers could extend further than I realized.
“Zoe,” Laura said, glancing over her shoulder at me. “I think we should give him a chance. We kind of need him, don’t we?”
No, I wanted to say. I don’t need anyone but myself.
But that wasn’t true, and I knew it.
“Fine,” I said, though I hated giving in. “But you better have a good plan.”
“First, we need to leave this place,” Dorian said, moving to the window to stare down at the streets. “Vincent could come back at anytime, and the vampires are on a killing spree right now. They seem dead set on taking out anyone and everyone who was associated with this.”
“What about Grams?” I asked. It wasn’t like I could just leave her here now, not even with stronger and tighter wards, not even if Laura, Dorian, and I all put wards up around this place. I wouldn’t trust it.
“I brought my car over,” Dorian said. “We’ll take her with us and keep her somewhere safe. She should be fine, as long as we get her out of this coma as quickly as we can. But we’ll need the warlock’s blood to break the curse. Finding him is the only way to undo the spell he’s cast.”
I swallowed hard, not wanting to ask the question. But I had to know. As scared as I was, it was better to be prepared for the worst case scenario. “And what happens if we take too long? If this guy is too hard to find?”
Dorian fell silent and flicked his gaze away. That was more of an answer than words could ever be. “I’ve seen this before. It doesn’t end well if too much time passes, and that’s all I’m going to say.”
“And you swear?” I raised my dagger before me, my voice trembling. “Getting his blood will break the curse?”
Dorian nodded. “I swear on my mother’s grave. It works just the same as bone magic. Put the warlock’s blood on the rune, and it will undo whatever spell he’s cast.”
“So, now we just need to find him.”
Chapter 22
“So, where are you taking us,” I asked after we’d safely made it down the stairs and into Dorian’s car. Grams sat hunched over in the front with the vampire, her head lolling to one side, her pale skin highlighted by the moon overhead.
Seeing her like this cut a knife through my heart. What kind of person would go after an old woman? A bastard, that’s who. And I’d do whatever it took to track him down.
Dorian cranked the engine and glanced behind him before pulling out into the thin traffic. “Back to my apartment. It’s the safest place I can think of right now.”
Frowning, I leaned forward, my chin brushing his shoulder. “Couldn’t they figure out where you live? I definitely saw some vamps on the street when I left earlier. They must have followed us.”
“No, that wouldn’t have been the Daywalkers.” Dorian changed gears, and his shoulder shifted against my chin. Swallowing hard, I knew I should lean away, but something compelled me to stay where I was. “There’s a bar on my block where some of the wannabes hang out. Real Daywalkers rarely go there though.”
“You live on a block where there’s a vampire bar?” I asked with a small laugh, glancing at Laura to see if she thought it was as ridiculous as I did. She was passed out, probably from all the stress, leaning against the window with her eyes shut tight and a peaceful look on her face. Good for her. I wished I could relax enough to get some shut eye, but I didn’t think I’d be sleeping for a long time to come. Not until all of this was over.
“You find that amusing, do you?” He flicked his blinker and spun the wheel, aiming the car onto his street.
“Well. Yeah. A weird coincidence, isn’t it?” My voice caught in my throat when he turned his head just enough to meet my eyes. His mouth was only inches from mine then, his breath hot on my face. Lips curling over his teeth, he smiled, and I felt a tremor go through me. Those teeth could rip out someone’s throat in two seconds flat, and yet here I was, so close that I could dart out my tongue and have a taste of his mouth.
He turned back to the road, and my pent-up breath expelled from parted lips. “Not a coincidence. I chose that block on purpose just in case I ever needed to blend in for some reason. It’s a lot easier to get out of sight if there’s a lot of other ‘vampires’ wandering around.”
“Then, why didn’t you choose somewhere with real vampires, instead of humans who just want to get in on the score?” I asked.
He chuckled. “Because I don’t know if you could tell, Zoe, but me and Daywalkers? We don’t get along too well. They think I’m an abomination just as much as everyone else.”
I blinked, surprised. “How do they know who you are?”
“Same way they know that you’re a member of the bone coven and that Laura’s unmarked.” His voice went cold and hard. “They can smell it on us.”
I shivered. If that was the case, then Grams wasn’t the only person in the world who knew the truth about me. She’d been right. The vampires had smelled my shadow mark. No wonder they had no trouble drinking Laura’s blood in front of me. They probably assumed the Bone Coven would want nothing to do with a Shadow.
And if the vampires knew, it was only a matter of time before the truth came out. I glanced at Laura before turning back to Dorian again. My heart struggled to accept what I knew deep down inside. Dorian might be a vampire, but he and Laura were all I had right now. With the council in ribbons and the Magister dead, no one was coming to help us. And in order to break the curse on Grams, I needed all the help I could get.
I couldn’t let either of them find out. Not yet. Because if they didn’t accept who I was, then I’d only end up alone.
“Alright,” Dorian said when we shuffled into his apartment,
weariness settling into all of our bones. It had been a long-ass day, and I had a feeling it wasn’t over with yet. Dorian held Grams in his arms like she was a child on the way to bed. Something about the way he looked with her tiny form in his arms stirred something in my stomach, something I didn’t understand. Something I wasn’t sure I wanted to understand. “We need a plan and supplies, but you two are in desperate need of some rest.”
“What about you?” Laura asked, leaning against the wall and trying her best to keep her eyes open. It wasn’t working.
“I don’t sleep,” he grumbled. “Not anymore. Besides, someone needs to stand watch just in case.”
He pointed to the window propped open with an old book. Outside, things were quiet, but we didn’t know if it would stay that way for long.
“Right,” Laura sighed. “Show me the way to a pillow. That’s all I need.”
Dorian nodded and led Laura into the tiny bedroom through the open archway where he eased Grams into bed. Laura grabbed a pillow and settled onto the floor in a ball, her legs curled up in the fetal position. Two seconds later, she was fast asleep.
After pulling the blanket over Grams, Dorian tossed a pillow my way. I caught the soft material in my hands but tossed it onto the floor just as fast. He must be crazy if he thought I could sleep right now.
He frowned and opened his mouth to speak, but I motioned him to follow me out of the room. With a shake of his head, he followed.
I pulled the dark curtain across the archway to give Laura some peace and quiet, and then I looked up into Dorian’s strong and masculine face. “I can’t sleep. Not right now.”
“You should,” he said. “Sleep will rejuvenate you. Not just your body but your mind and your power.”
“I can’t rest until we know what we’re doing next. We need to move fast.” I threw up my hands and blinked against the tears I’d been fighting for so long. Grams was hurt. Really hurt. If we didn’t work fast enough, she might not make it through this attack. And Dorian knew that. Hell, he’d been the one to explain her curse in the first place.
“It’s way past three o’clock in the morning, Zoe. There’s not a lot we can do right now,” he murmured. “A few hours of sleep isn’t going to make a difference. And sleep will leave you fresh and ready to fight.”
“But, how are we going to fight?” I pushed away from the wall and paced beside his desk. “We don’t even know where Vincent is. I could try to track him, but—”
There was that spell I found in the book. Too bad I had no idea how to read Latin. It gave me an idea though, one that might just give us the kind of break we needed.
“Do you know where he lives?” I asked.
Dorian nodded. “That occurred to me as well, but I don’t think he’d be dumb enough to go back there. It sounds like he knows you’ve seen his face. Am I right?”
“Oh yeah. He got a good look at me, and I got a hell of a good look at him. But maybe there would be something there that could help us track him.”
“Like what?” Dorian cocked his head. “You said track him, but there are no bone magic spells of that nature.”
Shit. I nibbled on my bottom lip and turned away, hoping he couldn’t see the guilt pouring across my face. Because he was right. None of the bone coven spells covered tracking, that I knew of. It was very much a shadow spell, the kind of thing assassins did in the dead of night. The kind of thing purveyors of dark magic preferred. Hiding in the shadows.
“You know me,” I said with a laugh. “I don’t really know much about this world, just like you’ve said.”
“How much training have you had?” Dorian asked as he watched me pacing the floor. I was moving so quickly that I was probably burning holes in the concrete. Pausing, I glanced up and met his eyes across the room. I still didn’t truly trust him, even though he was doing whatever he could to help. It was difficult to let go of what I knew he was.
A vampire.
Even though he’d been cursed, it didn’t stop the fact that he had cravings and urges that were similar to demon needs, even if he wasn’t a demon himself. It’s hard for someone to turn away from their true nature. If anyone knows that, it’s me.
Because how could I accept who I truly was? Just because Grams was a Shadow didn’t mean that I would turn out the way she did. She was unique, an anomaly, the only Shadow I’d ever heard of who never gave into the darkest parts of herself. I’d felt the pull, the whisper in the corner of my mind, asking me what it would be like if I only let the shadows consume my mind.
What kind of whispers did Dorian hear? Did he have the urge to drink us dry? To sink his teeth into our necks? And did it go further than that? Because vampires didn’t just want to feed. They wanted to kill.
Finally, I turned back to Dorian. “I’ve had very little training. Though I’m not sure it’s a good idea to admit that to you.”
“Well, in that case, I won’t offer to help.” He leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. It was his tough guy act, but I could tell my words had dug into his brain. For a split second, hurt flickered in his dark eyes. But it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared.
“I’m not sure…” Well, truthfully, I wasn’t sure it would work. Dorian would have some bone spells he wanted to teach me, and while I could learn them in a sense, I’d never be particularly good at them, no matter how much I practiced. Bones weren’t where I got my power, though I could get a tiny boost from them occasionally. Maybe because my parents had that kind of magic.
If I wanted to enhance my powers, I needed to train in shadow magic. But that would mean coming clean about my mark, and I wasn’t ready to do that. As an Enforcer, Dorian would be obligated to tell the coven. Faking a mark might not be against their laws, mostly because no one had ever been dumb enough to try such a thing, but they would no doubt make an example of me.
“I don’t really want to practice any spells right now,” I said. “My power feels drained.”
“Come on.” Dorian pressed away from the wall and jogged toward me. “You may have to fight. Might as well learn a few tricks just in case. Bring out your dagger.”
I hesitated for a moment, but then followed his orders. It didn’t hurt to try, I supposed. Even if the spells weren’t useful to me, maybe I could learn something about how to channel the power I felt running through my veins. Right now, it still felt like a wild animal, bucking and charging around when I tried to take control of the reins.
“You remember how I told you to hold it?” he asked, pulling his own dagger from the sheath he had strapped to his waist.
I nodded and held it up, trying to picture the blade as an extension of my arm.
“Good.” He nodded. “Now try to stab me with it.”
The dagger dropped to my side, and I frowned. “What does that have to do with magic?”
His lips curled into a grin. “Nothing. But physical defense can be just as important as magical. This requires nothing but you and your blade. No bones, no blood, no rising sun. No shadows.”
Chills swept through me at the way he spoke the word shadows. A heavy emphasis that reflected in his eyes. Or was I just imagining it? It was impossible to tell.
“And most witches and warlocks won’t see that kind of attack coming.” He motioned for me to lift the blade. “When they don’t know what’s coming, they won’t be ready to stop you.”
“That makes sense,” I said warily, but I lifted the dagger all the same. Truth was, I felt a thrill in my gut at the idea of learning hand-to-hand combat. I’d struggled with spells for so long that the idea of slicing a blade through the air almost felt more natural. I’d been carrying this weapon with me for as long as I could remember. And, for as long as I could remember, casting magic had always been an effort that never paid off how I wanted.
I knew why now. And, with some practice, my shadow magic would get stronger and stronger over time.
I just wasn’t sure I wanted it to.
“Good.” He gr
inned again. “Do your best damage, Zoe.”
With a deep breath, I swung out my arm, and the blade soared through the air. Until a massive arm knocked me sideways. I landed on the floor with an oomph, my brain spinning.
“Ouch.” I glared up at him. “How is knocking me out going to help anything?”
“It’s going to teach you what to expect when you try certain dumbass moves.” He smirked but reached out a hand to help me up.
“Oh yeah?” I raised my eyebrows, ignoring his hand. “Was it a dumbass move when I fought that vampire at headquarters? If I recall correctly, I won that little skirmish.”
“I saw. It was a badass move, I’ll give you that.” He smiled as he watched me stand and lift my dagger once again. “But, I hate to say it, you got a little lucky. He underestimated you and didn’t expect the attack. Next time, that might not happen. Not everyone is going to think you’re a weak little thing.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m not a weak little thing.”
“Damn straight.” He inched forward and lifted his hand, flicking his fingers in a welcoming move. “Now, try again.”
This time, I didn’t go at him as quickly as I had the first time. Instead, I waited, eyeing him up before I made my move. His feet were planted firmly on the floor in a wide stance that resembled a boxer’s pose. Both arms hovered by his sides, tense but ready to move at a moment’s notice. And his eyes. They were steady and unyielding but zeroed in on my wrist. He wasn’t looking at the rest of me. So, maybe I could catch him off guard by doing something he didn’t expect.
With a deep breath, I jumped to the side and swung my free hand right at his stomach. It landed with a crunch, cracking my fingers. Pain exploded in my bones and fire licked at my knuckles. I almost couldn’t breathe from how much it stung.
“Ouch, shit!” Gritting my teeth, I pulled my hand to my chest and hunched over. I squeezed my eyelids tight and tried to force down the pain, but it throbbed to the beat of my racing heart.
Witch's Curse (The Bone Coven Chronicles Book 1) Page 17